


Carefree

by Raindropsonwhiskers



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fluff, Kissing, Other, Wingfic, inadvisable competitive streak indulgement, temporary threat of being eaten by a large dragonesque creature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27984873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raindropsonwhiskers/pseuds/Raindropsonwhiskers
Summary: The Doctor and the Master just want to enjoy some peace and quiet, but they don't particularly mind when that plan gets interrupted. Even if the interruption is trying to eat them.
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Carefree

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to my previous wingfic Caged, but you don't really need to have read it to understand this fic. Enjoy!

It's peaceful, deep in the forests of a long-abandoned planet, the only sounds the chirping of the animals that still call it home and the gentle rush of the Master's breath, the comforting beat of his hearts. The Doctor feels relaxed, pleasant,  _ calm _ in a deep, pervasive way she hasn't had before in this body.

She also feels a bit sore from the angle she's been sitting at for the past few hours, her back and wings stiff. Not that she's complaining — having the Master's head on her shoulder, being able to drape one wing over his shoulders without some pretense to justify the affection, is everything she's wanted for  _ centuries. _ Ever since she'd been trapped on Earth, wings clipped and TARDIS no longer functional, and he'd kept her days interesting.

When she shifts slightly, straightening and rolling her shoulders, rustling her wings to work out some of the stiffness in them, the Master stirs. She didn't think that he'd fallen asleep, but from the bleary way he blinks his eyes open, he must have. The sleepy, questioning noise he makes has the Doctor's hearts melting.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," she apologizes. "Just getting a little uncomfortable, sitting like that."

"You know, we don't  _ have _ to sit on the tree branch," he points out, managing a very impressive sleep-to-snark turnaround. "Plenty of other places to cuddle, love."

The Doctor frowns at him. "But it's pretty up here! And I wasn't complaining."

He sighs, rolls his eyes, and goes back to leaning his head against her shoulder. After a moment, his hand finds hers, fingers lacing together like they were meant for this.

"If you're bored of this, we could go exploring," she offers. "I think I saw some interesting-looking caves while we were flying over."

"No, this is… this is perfect."

They're both silent for a little while longer, neither of them willing to break the peaceful stillness of the forest. Not even a breeze rustles the leaves of the tree they're perching in.

"Do you know how long I've wanted this?" the Master asks, the question on the edge of rhetorical.

The Doctor hums. "As long as I have, I'd imagine."

"Yeah," he smiles. "We're idiots, aren't we, love?"

She laughs, and then gently, she pulls him into a kiss. The angle is awkward, sitting on a branch as they are, but neither of them are particularly scared of falling.

Something shrieks in the air above them, the piercing cry close enough to make the Doctor look up, curious. A shadow falls over them, something massive passing above the treetops.

"You said this planet was uninhabited." The Master raises an eyebrow.

"By sentients," she corrects. "Didn't think there was megafauna, but apparently I was wrong."

The creature makes a second pass, low enough the wind from its wingbeats ruffles the Doctor's hair and feathers. It calls out again, high and sharp. By the third time it comes by, even lower than before, she starts to get a little worried.

"You don't think it's-" she starts, only to be promptly interrupted by another shriek and then a blast of heat from above, sweltering and sudden.

"Hunting us, the largest and loudest things in this forest?" the Master asks, sarcastic. "Why yes, dear, I think it might be."

A burning gust of air that falls far too close to fire for comfort has the Doctor flinching instinctively away, ducking down though it barely does anything to mitigate the heat. Then she turns, grinning at the Master.

"I'll race you to the TARDIS," she says.

He smiles like a shark, all sharp teeth. "You're on."

That's all the agreement the Doctor needs to drop off the branch the two of them had been sharing, wings tucked in tight and eyes set on the perfect gap between the foliage. She can feel the Master behind her, swooping even lower than she is.

With the perfect timing, the Doctor flares her wings and slips between the trees, turning her head to look above as she does. Sure enough, the silhouette of the creature looms overhead, but it's too large to actually get under the canopy to catch them. The only way it could is if they were to go into open air, but she has about as much intention of doing that as she does of losing.

One particularly large tree forces her to make a sudden turn, her wings nearly perpendicular to the ground as she swerves, and she can feel the Master's amusement in her mind as he pulls ahead. The Doctor grits her teeth and tightens her wings into a dive, sacrificing height for a burst of speed that lets her take the lead once more.

They stay like that, nearly neck and neck, until the Doctor slips between two trees and finds herself abruptly in open air. She hisses a curse under her breath - she'd completely forgotten about the cliff. It hadn't been an issue coming up, after all, but mid-exit-pursued-by-large-hungry-predator, it's something of a problem.

But she doesn't exactly have time to think of a proper solution, because the aforementioned hungry predator has just realized the same thing, and - more importantly - the Master is getting ahead of her. So, with few other options, the Doctor makes to dive for the tree cover below. When the creature follows suit, she has to change tactics.

It's a big thing, by the standards of fauna with wings, nearly fifteen meters long without the tail. Massive wings, and what looks to be a very flexible neck that could, if she were to let it get too close, easily extend to snap her up. So, instead of a desperate free-fall towards the forest that would probably be too slow to get her to safety, she makes a sharp, hairpin turn and gets back underneath the creature, out of reach of those fang-filled jaws.

There's a lag between when the knowledge that its potential snack has disappeared hitting that massive, slow brain, and when the thing pulls out of its dive, and it's in that moment that the Doctor makes another quick turn and continues racing for cover. She can outwit and outmaneuver the creature until the suns go out, but that won't mean a thing if she's still in open air and, ultimately, slower than it is. Potentially immortal Time Lord or no, getting eaten is difficult to recover from.

Thankfully, by the time the creature catches on to what she's doing, the Doctor is safely under the canopy again, and now much more concerned about beating the Master back to the TARDIS. Avoiding being devoured had cost her precious time when he was already in the lead, and now her chances of winning are slim at best. Still, she's hardly about to give up now.

As she darts between trees, ignoring the furious bellows of the creature above, she feels the Master's mind go suddenly dark, and the Doctor nearly crashes into a tree out of shock. Though she's nearly certain that it's a ploy on his part to throw her off track - and if so, it's working - she can't help but worry. But he can take care of himself, she knows, and she does  _ not _ want to let him win by cheating. She decides to worry about him after she gets to the TARDIS.

Victory is so close she can almost taste it, and she slips lower, closer to the ground to slip through narrower and narrower spaces. It's the sort of extremely precise flight that she loves the challenge of, even without the added pressure of the race and the ravenous creature hunting her. The faintest glimpse of blue through the trees guides her closer, closer, and she's nearly there-

All the warning she gets is a rustle of feathers above her before she's suddenly being tackled to the ground. They land in a flurry of limbs and disturbed vegetation as the Doctor barely manages to twist so that she lands on top of her assailant. Panting, wings flaring in a threat display that doesn't mean much, she glares down at the person whose legs she's straddling. Beneath her, leaves and grass in his hair and a far too smug look on his face, the Master beams, and then promptly shoves her off of him and takes off sprinting for the TARDIS before she can recover.

"Oh, no you don't!" she snarls, and runs after him.

Of the two of them, she's almost always the faster one, both in flight and on foot. The Master's broader wings serve him well for longer flights, but in a perfectly fair sprint, she would win every time. This, of course, is nowhere near fair anymore, but that's how they've always preferred to play their games.

It's a straight shot to the TARDIS, and he's already a good portion of the way there. Determined not to lose, the Doctor puts centuries' more experience running to use and has nearly caught up to him by the time he's more than halfway there. If she kept her current speed, she could beat him fair and square.

Instead, she lunges at him, shoving him down onto the grass much the same way that he'd done to her; this time, when she pins him down, it's far more deliberate. He won't be able to just push her off, now. 

"Sore loser," the Master accuses, though he mostly sounds delighted.

"I nearly got eaten!" the Doctor protests. "And you attacked me first."

He rolls his eyes and squirms, trying hopelessly to get loose. "You're fine. Let me up, at least lose with some dignity."

"No," she says, then leans down to kiss him.

In a turn of events that shocks neither of them, he stops wiggling and starts kissing back almost immediately. She brings her wings up around them, a protective little bubble against everything else, and then nips at his lower lip until he makes a  _ very _ nice noise. After a moment, she even rearranges herself so that he can sit up a little, allowing for a much better angle when she starts to kiss along his neck.

And then, mid-kiss, the Doctor stands up and runs full pelt for the TARDIS. Behind her, the Master makes a rather indignant sound that he will, later, deny being a squeak of any variety. By the time he's running, it's already too late, and the Doctor has one hand firmly and indisputably on the outside of the TARDIS.

"You're a cheater," he grumbles.

"All's fair in love and war," she replies brightly.

He raises an eyebrow. "And which one's this, then?"

"Both, probably." The Doctor shrugs. She tries not to look too flustered when she adds, "But mostly the former. Now come on, before that thing finds us again."

The Master laughs and follows her into the TARDIS. She tries not to be too smug about it when he kisses her again; he may hate losing, but at least he does so with grace.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked, please leave a kudos or a comment!


End file.
